Selectmen Vote To Join New Regional Council

OLD SAYBROOK — A fledgling regional council designed to give area towns more political clout may soon be able to count Old Saybrook among its confirmed members.

The selectmen have voted to join the start- up Connecticut River Valley Council of Elected Officials, an organization officials are hoping will give towns a greater ability to tackle regional issues.

``The biggest advantage will be in our ability to have more influence in Hartford, in the legislature,'' said Old Saybrook First Selectman Bob Fish.

``Right now we have nine towns that are together in the Lower Valley Selectmen's Association. This will make it 17 towns, which is 10 percent of all the towns in Connecticut.''

A town meeting on the issue must now be scheduled in Old Saybrook.

The nine towns in the Lower Valley Selectmen's Association and the eight towns in the Midstate Regional Planning Agency region are all eligible to join the new council.

The smaller agencies will also continue to exist. The new council was authorized by the General Assembly during the spring.

Essex was one of the first towns to join.

``There's strength in numbers,'' said Essex First Selectman Peter Webster. ``That's why we have a regional planning agency.''

Webster said the council will give participating towns a louder voice in state legislative issues.

``I think everyone will come on board,'' he said. ``At least down here in the towns in CRERPA [the Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency], all the CEOs of the towns were strongly in favor of it.''

Old Saybrook's selectmen are also setting a date for a town meeting on the revision of the town's Ordinance 75, which regulates on-site sewage disposal systems.

Under the revision, the town will subsidize only one sewage system pump-out per year per residence.

The ordinance still requires residents to have their septic systems pumped once every five years, but the town will no longer absorb part of the costs for those who pump out more than once in a 12-month period.